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Eaglehawk Victoria
Town hall, now a cinema. A war memorial is in the foreground
Established:	1852
Postcode:	3556 [1]
Location:	156 km (97 mi) NW [2] of Melbourne 6 km (4 mi) NW [2] of Bendigo
LGA:	City of Greater Bendigo

Eaglehawk is a former gold-mining town in Victoria, Australia and a suburb within the City of Greater Bendigo.

The town is situated to the north-east of Bendigo on the Loddon Valley Highway. The highway is known locally as High Street until the intersection with Sailors Gully Road (Bendigo - Pyramid Road) and as Peg Leg Road to the west. Located on this intersection is Brassey Square which is the location of the town hall. Next to the town hall is the former post office and the mechanics institute. To the north of the intersection on Napier Street is Canterbury Park and Lake Neangar while the Swan Hill railway line and the local railway station are located to the south.^[3]

[edit] History

The original inhabitants of the area were the Neangar people. Following the discovery of gold at Sandhurst (Bendigo) in October 1851, Joseph Crook discovered a gold nugget while searching for stray horses. This event sparked a gold rush in the area leading to the establishment of the township in 1852, the population quickly building up to 40,000. The Post Office opened on 1 August 1857. ^[4] In 1862, the Borough of Eaglehawk was established, which included the nearby township of California Gully. After the alluvial goal was exhausted in 1893, reef mines were established, with 300 tonnes of gold extracted. Most of the mines had closed by the 1890s and by 1947 the population had decreased substantially to 4,090. In 1994 the Borough of Eaglehawk amalgamated with four other councils to become the city of Greater Bendigo.^[5]

[edit] Community facilities

Eaglehawk Primary School

[edit] Schools

The town has two government primary schools one at Eaglehawk and another at Eaglehawk North, a Catholic primary school (St. Liborius) and a government secondary college.

[edit] Sporting facilities

Canterbury Park has an oval as well as bowling and croquet facilities. It is also home to the Bendigo Leisure Centre, operated by the Bendigo Regional YMCA. This facility includes a 50-metre heated indoor swimming pool, a health club, mini golf and squash courts.^[6] The Albert Roy Reserve has a baseball field,a badminton, a table tennis stadium and is home to the Roy Bateson Tennis Club. A soccer field is located at the nearby Truscott Reserve. The town has two golf courses, the Eaglehawk Golf Course and the Neangar Park Golf Course.^[7]

The suburb has an Australian Rules football team competing in the Bendigo Football League. ^[8]

[edit] Other facilities

A community and day hospital, a 66-bed aged-care facility (St Laurence Court) is operated by Benatas.^[9] A police station and a fire station are also located in the town.

[edit] Events

The annual Dahlia & Arts Festival is held in March.^[7]

[edit] Cultural references

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Mulga Bill's Bicycle

The author Thomas Alexander Browne, better known by his pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood, wrote the novel The Sphinx of Eaglehawk in 1895, based on his experiences as a station owner in the area. In one of A.B. "Banjo" Paterson's poems "Mulga Bill's Bicycle", first published in The Sydney Mail in 1896, Paterson introduces the eponymous character as "Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze".^[10] The poem's local connection was recognised with the creation of the Mulga Bill Bicycle Trail, taking in many of the mining attractions, historic sites and modern day amenities of Eaglehawk.^[11]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eaglehawk, Victoria

• Eaglehawk, Victoria is at coordinates 36°44′S 144°15′E / -36.73, 144.25Coordinates: 36°44′S 144°15′E / -36.73, 144.25